


sing me to sleep

by ciuucalata



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Nightmares, Phone Calls & Telephones, Sleepy Keith (Voltron), happens before season 6, voltronsummergiftexchange2k18
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 11:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15363636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ciuucalata/pseuds/ciuucalata
Summary: Nightmares are a normal occurrence when you fight in a war, Lance knows that.





	sing me to sleep

**Author's Note:**

> This is my [@voltronsummergiftexchange](https://voltronsummergiftexchange.tumblr.com/) for [@stixy-art](https://stixy-art.tumblr.com/)  
> I'm so sorry it's this late!!! I hope you'll like it

Nightmares are a normal occurrence when you fight in a war, Lance knows that. He’s not the only one that has them. Sometimes he’d wake up in the middle of the night because of one and, if the darkness of his room was too suffocating, he’d wander the castle until he feels sleepy again. And it’s during those walks that he meets up with the other paladins. Shiro is the one he sees the most, and sometimes he meets Hunk and even Pidge if she isn’t stuck next to her computer.

But having a lot of nightmares doesn’t mean you’ll ever get used to them. You can never be at peace with waking up in a cold sweat, crying and grasping the sheets like they’re the only thing that anchors you to reality.

Unfortunately, those aren’t the worst ones. He can handle them after crying his eyes out. The difficult ones are those that make him jump awake, his senses all messed up and with the memories of the demons he was dreaming of still so alive and vivid in his mind that he doesn’t know where he is for a couple minutes.

“Shit,” Lance whispers, pressing his hands against his face as he sits back on his bed but the quiet word sounds like a thunder in the dead air of his room. He can’t calm down. His head is pounding as fast as his heart and it feels almost impossible to fill his lungs with the oxygen he so desperately needs.

Part of him knows that he is awake. The dream can’t touch him now. He can’t acknowledge that, however, when Keith’s blood still feels warm slipping through his fingers and  the weight of his body feels unbearably heavy in Lance’s arms. A whimper slips through his lips and it’s like that is all he needed to let go of the gripping pain in his chest.

The tears start flowing and Lance doesn’t care at all.It’s so liberating, to let go after all. With every tear, the sour aftertaste of the nightmare is being washed away and he can breathe again. It’s freeing.

It seems like hours before he stops crying and he can honestly says he feels better. Better doesn’t mean he is fine, though. There is still a feeling of uneasiness that eats him from inside and that’ll stay with him for days.

He’s aware of that. It’s what Lance experiences everytime he dreams about someone dying and the only thing that can make him feel better is staying glued to that person until he forgets. But he never did it for Keith because, well… he is Keith. Lance would die of embarrassment before following him around like a lost puppy.

And even if he’d want to do that now, Keith is no longer here, but with the Blades. Too far away to touch, too far away to make sure he is safe and sound - to make sure he is still alive.

Lance sighs before getting under the covers, bringing them up over his head. It soon gets too hot and stuffy breathing under them, but he feels like nothing can harm him so he stays that way, hoping that sleep will take him again soon.

But the minutes pass just as fast as the seconds and Lance is still wide awake, Keith’s white face imprinted on the back of his eyelids everytime he closes his eyes. With another sigh, Lance throws the covers off of him and starts looking for his phone, which probably fell on the floor while he was sleeping.

He planned on playing some games either until he falls back asleep or until the others wake up too, but his fingers have a mind of their own and soon he’s staring at Keith’s contact info. He isn’t sure how to feel about this. About his mind subconsciously seeking Keith in whatever way it could. All he can do is stare at his phone and wonder if he should or shouldn’t call Keith.

Well, the answer was simple. He shouldn’t. It’s probably really late- or really early and he doesn’t want to disturb Keith. But he wants to. He wants to call him and hear his voice and make sure he is in one piece even if he was galaxies away. He wants to forget about the blood and the death that still haunt him.

Taking in a deep breath, Lance closes his eyes and calls Keith. The wait feels almost like an eternity but it also feel too soon by the time Keith answers. Lance wasn’t ready.

“Hmmpf?”

The muffled reply makes Lance open his eyes to look at the screen and he starts laughing. The video call was for Lance to see Keith’s face and to make sure he isn’t dead, but Lance thinks that Keith’s ear is just as good evidence of him being alive as anything else.

Biting his lip, Lance switches the video call to a normal one and brings his phone to his own ear.

“Keith…” he begins but realizes he doesn’t know what to say. So, instead, he blurts the first dumb thing that comes to his mind. “Sorry, did I wake you up?”

“Mmhmm,” Keith mumbles, sleepier than before and this time Lance can’t fight the giggles. “What? Um, no, no. I was just… yeah, I wasn’t doing that.”

Lance brings a hand to cover his mouth, trying hard not to laugh again. It’s not every day that he has the honor to witness a sleepy Keith and he is going to savour this.

“If you say so, tough guy. So, what were you doing? Besides, you know, not sleeping.”

Another mumble comes from Keith before he yawns and says, “I was dreaming of you.”

“What?” Lance chokes, feeling his cheeks burning

“What?” Keith yelps, suddenly sounding more awake. “Oh, yeah,” he begins, his voice shaking and sounding as if he didn’t want to talk about it. “ _You_ as in the whole team, y’know?” A forced laugh follows and Lance decides to let this go, but the giddiness he feels after hearing Keith was dreaming of him is something he still wants to  keep.

“Oh, okay. Was it a good one?”

“Um, yeah. Yeah, it was!” Keith answers and Lance can hear the smile in his voice. “We were back on Earth, on a beach somewhere, I think. It was… it was really nice.”

Lance smiles too and closes his eyes. He’s trying to imagine whatever Keith was dreaming about: the two of them and the others on a beach, back on Earth, his family was probably there too and for the first time they’re able to relax and they’re happy, not stressing about the Galra.

“Was it before or after?” Lance asks, wondering if Keith’s dream has the possibility of becoming reality.

“Hmm? Oh, I think it was before.” Lance’s hearts is getting squeezed again realizing that he didn’t have to explicitly say before or after what, Keith just understands. “I think it was before?”

“You think?”

“Yeah, ‘cause like…” Keith stops, probably trying to remember his dream. “I don’t know how to explain it but like I _know_ it’s before.”

“That sounds fake,” Lance laughs. “You wouldn’t look at me before, let alone go to the beach with me.”

“What? Why would you think that?” When Lance doesn’t answer immediately, Keith continues on with a sour note. “I looked at you plenty before.”

This time Lance was too surprised by the honesty in the answer that he didn’t even dare breathe, let alone say a word.

“It was impossible to miss you with your loud mouth and talking about your _rival_ left and right.”

Lance lets out the breath he’s been holding and rolls his eyes. For a second there he forgot he was talking to normal Keith, and not sleepy and adorably honest Keith.

“Haha, I can see that the Blades aren’t training your sense of humor too.”

Keith starts laughing and it makes Lance smile too. He can admit to himself that he missed the sound even if he’ll never admit it to anyone else. They might not be the closest of friends, but with time, Lance likes to think that they grew closer to how they were in the beginning. He likes to think of Keith as a friend, maybe even more than that. A member of his new family. Keith and the others are all Lance has now and losing one of them would be something he’ll never be able to get over.

“Can you imagine Kolivan actually giving me that kind of lessons?” Keith says quickly while still laughing. Lance bursts out joins in too thinking of  the image that scene creates.

“That would be a joke itself.”

“Oh, man. Now I really want that to happen,” Keith giggles and the sound steals Lance’s breath. He doesn’t dwell much on what his reaction could mean. He just ignores it like all the other times and buries it deep down.

“Dude, if that ever happens you have to invite me too.”

“Hmm, maybe I’ll just send some photos,” Keith teases and Lance can imagine him so clearly in his mind. His hair tousled from sleep, maybe with pillow marks on his cheeks, a smirk on his face while his eyes burn with pride as he makes fun of Lance.

Lance feels his breath stop in his throat and it takes him by surprise. He doesn’t know how to deal with it this time. It’s not the fact that he finds a boy attractive that surprises him. He got over that a long time ago. And if he has to be honest, not even the fact that he finds Keith -of all people- attractive. He accepted that too. What surprises him is the intensity with which it hit him.

“Lance?” Keith calls him and the sound of his voice makes Lance blush.

“Oh, no,” he whispers, too petrified to realize he spoke out loud.

“What? What’s wrong?”

 _Nononono, not Keith!_ he thinks, ignoring the boy in question as he keeps calling for Lance.

“Lance, I’m getting worried.” Keith’s soft voice finally snaps Lance out of his surprise.

“Oh, um, sorry. I was just imagining Kolivan actually making a joke.”

“Ah,” Keith says and from just that sound, Lance knows his lie wasn’t good enough. “He does joke from time to time.”

“No way,” Lance laughs weakly, trying to play along.

“Mmhmm. As you can imagine, they’re not the best and no one ever laughs.”

“Poor Kolivan. He’s just trying his best.”

Keith laughs at that but Lance can barely bring himself to smile. _Why Keith? Why now?_ He drags a hand over his face, swallowing back a sigh.

“His best is not good enough,” Keith jokes and this is too much for Lance.

“Wow, I can see that the Blades at least give you lessons on how to be rude.”

“Lance, c’mon. That was in my CV and they knew what they were getting when they hired me.”

“Lucky them ‘cause we didn’t know. Thank god they took you.”

Keith hums, not at all affected by Lance’s words. He just sounds amused and happy, which is another shot to Lance’s poor heart. “You say that now but I bet you’re missing me.”

“Dream on, Mullet. Dream on.”

Lance was expecting another laugh but what he gets instead is a loud yawn. “Maybe I should do that.”

“Oh, okay.” Lance _tried_ to keep the disappointment hidden but damn he’d never been good at hiding his emotions. He just hopes that Keith is once again to sleepy to notice it. “Umm, good night, then!”

Lance almost ends the call when he hears Keith say, “Lance, wait!”

“Yeah?” For some reason, Lance is really worried about what Keith might say next. It’s not like he’ll tell Lance to never call him again, right?

“Why did you call?”

Lance forgot all about that the moment Keith answered. He hesitates for just a second while his mind tries to choose what to tell Keith, but in the end all that leaves his lips is, “It’s nothing. Don’t worry ‘bout it.”

There’s a long silence on Keith’s side and Lance doesn’t know how to read it. The sleep is finally catching up with him, causing his mind to get fuzzier and fuzzier as the seconds tick by. It’s not like he can read Keith’s silences when he’s awake, but at least they don’t feel so intimidating.

Not for the first time since he heard Keith’s sleepy voice, Lance wishes he could see Keith’s face. It was always the easiest thing for Lance to understand about the other boy. He has the most expressive eyes Lance has ever seen. After meeting Keith, Lance finally understood what his abuela meant when she kept saying that the eyes are the mirror to our soul.

And Keith has one of the most beautiful soul Lance has ever seen.

“It doesn’t sound like nothing to me,” Keith insists, the words spoken softly and slowly, letting Lance know that Keith is just as sleepy as him.

“It was just a nightmare,” Lance admits with a sigh because he feels guilty for waking Keith up at this ungodly hour. The least he could do now is not keep him up more.

“Oh, do you want to talk about it?”

Lance closes his eyes frowning. The hazy images of the nightmare come back to him, but they aren’t as strong as before. It doesn’t hurt him as much when he remembers how it felt to hold Keith’s limp and bloody body in his arms. Despite this, he still feels as if he wouldn’t be able to talk about this without crying.

“No. I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for, Lance,” Keith assures him, his voice leaving no space for an argument despite the sleepiness it still carries.

Silence falls between them again, but it’s different from before. It’s easy and comfortable and Lance puts this moment away in a corner of his heart. _For later_ , he promises himself.

“If you want, I can stay with you on the phone till you fall asleep,” Keith offers. Lance is surprised to realize that Keith’s voice has no trace of insecurities or uncertainties. It sounds so… Keith. It makes Lance smile.

Lance almost refuses to, hating to be a nuisance to Keith any more than he has been, but at the same time he can’t bring himself to say those words. Greediness started to make a space for itself in Lance’s mind and won’t leave till it gets what it wants.

Doesn’t mean Lance can’t try. “I don’t want to-”

“You’re not. Whatever you were about to say, you’re not, Lance.” Keith interrupts him. His words slowly make their way through Lance, leaving behind only warmth, until they reach that stubborn greedy part of him. It transforms the traces of warmth into satisfaction.

Lance doesn’t even try to fight the smile off his face.

“Thank you,” he whispers in the end because Keith deserves something sincere and he feels as if his normal tone wouldn’t be able to convey his gratitude.

“You’re welcome,” Keith replies, making way too obvious the smile in his voice. “Now try to get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow. Saving the universe and all that stuff.”

“That’s like, everyday of our life.”

Keith laughs but says nothing more and Lance doesn’t feel the need to fill the silence.

He falls asleep that way; Keith’s breathing in his ear and the nightmare leaving less and less traces behind in his mind. His last thought before sleep takes him back is that he wishes he could fall asleep to Keith’s heartbeat too.

**Author's Note:**

> you can also find me on tumblr @[ciuucalata](https://ciuucalata.tumblr.com/)  
> and my writing blog @[ciuucalatawrites](https://ciuucalatawrites.tumblr.com/)


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